"Medics Must Consult Patients," Clients Demand

Ike Vavi
Correspondent | Monday August 9, 2010 00:00

 The checking of vital signs begins. My friend is ordered to place the thermometer under his armpit.  A sphygmomanometer or BP machine as it is commonly referred to is also placed on his hand.

Readings are recorded on the medical card. Nothing is being said. We are ordered to go and join another queue that is going into the consultation room. My friend proposes that we go in together as he is now weak.

Inside the consultation room, the nurse receives us with a smile and asks my friend what he is complaining about. As my friend is busy explaining to the nurse, she is busy writing on the medical card.

When my friend ends his story the nurse's response is as simple as ' Anything else' to which my friend responds by signalling with his hand that there is nothing more. There is temporary silence.

She winds up the scribbling business. Her parting shot is: 'Go and collect the medication from the dispensary'. She is done with us. She immediately invites the next person in.

We are now queuing to collect the medication. One thing bothers us. There was no explanation about the reading on the thermometer or the BP machine.

'The failure by some nurses to communicate or give explanations seems to be the main cause of the public outcry about poor customer service in most of the health services centres across the country,' my friend complains, with the medication in one hand and the medical card in another.

Tapala Kgosietsile of Mathangwane is worried that nurses fail to communicate effectively. The patient is usually treated as a mere recipient of the service from the nurses rather than as a partner.

'This is evidenced by the fact that when a nurse attends to you, they will simply do the checking of vital signs like the blood pressure and the body temperature.

They will not even explain to you what the readings are and what those readings signify or suggest,' he says.

You are only told to place the thermometer under your armpit and the BP machine on your arm, he says. 'After checking the readings, most of them simply record them on the medical card and do not explain the significance of the readings to you.

That is why most of us will not even know whether our temperatures and blood pressure are within the normal range or not.

We do not even know what the normal ranges for blood pressure and temperature are because we are never told anything even when ours are deviating from the normal,' he complains.

'During the interview they will be busy writing on your medical card. As soon as you have finished you will be referred to the dispensary to go and collect medication without any explanation,' he said.

In most cases it will not be easy to read the card. 'It mostly comprises of short hand writing and professional jargon that is understood by the nurses and doctors only,' he argues. 

Itireleng Botumile of Mambo prefers that nurses should share the proposed interventions with the client.

'It would be good for the nurses to share with the clients their intervention or plans. The nurse and the clients are partners and should always share and discuss the care plans,' she opines.

She believes that approach will improve the nurse - patient relationship. 'Such an approach will ultimately lead to a good working relationship between the nurses and the patients,' she says.

For Tanyala Mangisi of Tutume: 'The good customer care that the public requires from the nurses is simply communication and explanation. What the society wants from the nurses is for them to communicate effectively with their clients'.

She says when you are given the medication you will only be told about the dosage. 'They will simply tell you how many pills or spoons of medicine to take per day but will not share with you the whole plan as to exactly how the different medication you are to be given will function. This is the kind of information that we must be told,' she says.

She says often failure to share the information leads to non-compliance. 'Explaining to patients why they have been given certain medication will have a positive bearing on the rate or level of patient compliance to medication and medical instructions,' she emphasised.

She says the lack of communication in the public health facilities clouds most of the good customer care.'This is what is proving to be one of the main differences between the private hospitals and the public health facilities,' she explains.